Beaches Link and Gore Hill Freeway Connection

There are high concerns about the environmental impact of this project. Public land and its natural surroundings should not be destroyed to make space for more vehicles. It’s disappointing it’s not a train line. However if we’ve learnt anything from the past year, people are no longer occupying city spaces and a greater appreciation for the environment and natural space around us. These spaces are incredibly important and becoming increasingly valuable as our world changes. As a young person I want future to be able to enjoy the beautiful green spaces around us (middle harbour, tunks parks and flat rock gully) for my whole life.

This is a good idea and project. I believe it will decongest roads, public transport, as well as create jobs.

This project is unnecessary and unwanted. People want more public transport, not a toll road. The environmental impact to the surrounding Flat Rock Gully and Middle Harbour foreshore area will be devastating. Did you know that a seal has recently come to swim in the waters there as it’s so clean? Native birds and animals’ habitat will be destroyed and long-term impact is a polluting exhaust tunnel with unfiltered stacks because of more traffic to the area. The community should not have to endure this imposition on our area. I object to this project.

We have no need for the proposed tunnel from Northern Beaches to Cammeray. More people are and will continue to work from home, so less commuting. The cost to local community by 5-7 years of road works, water pollution, noise pollution, unfiltered vents/ stacks and the greatest issue of all, environmental impact.
I do not want to see any part of Manly Dam area disturbed-we have too many species that rely on this for habitat.
A solution would be to improve bus services, only open Spit Bridge 3 times a day on weekends and twice a day during the week -ie 1015 and 215pm.
Part of the beauty of the Northern beaches is its environment-please do not build this in our area-we don't want it.

As president of palm beach, I feel the peninsular has been penalised with infrastructure for decades, whether Monday morning rubbish pick ups, bigola bends roadside collapses/congestion, mona vale bottle necks, wakehurst parkway flooding, congestion from cyclists due to narrow roadways etc..; as a resident of the peninsula and someone whom pays disproportionate rates, enough is enough. I travel to the city each day and it is about time the government stop talking and start doing surrounding infrastructure, In addition, its time the residents start thinking about 10year and beyond as the current infrastructure will keen our society. I am a huge supporter of the beaches link tunnel. If the current members can't deliver this, then we need to identify a members whom can.

I wholeheartedly object to the flat rock project site. The sheer amount of families, schools and native wildlife in the area that will be affected should surely warrant an alternative to be found. The measurements taken to minimise community concern seem really lackluster and to be frank, delivered pretty coldly from the people on the online video/q&a. Would they be happy with 70 trucks an hour next door to their house? The sheer volume of trucks is simply ridiculous for a highly concentrated community area, let alone the concrete trucks that will be arriving all night! Seriously. Please. Can you have another look at this? Surely we can do better. Thank you. Seriously concerned for our families welfare here. Tim

This connection will be underutilized. The exception will be visitors to the northern beaches during the few hot days each year that fall on weekends and public holidays. But even then the connection will underperform as the northern beaches' infrastructure is inadequate for the occasional influx.

The building of the tunnel will cause too much air pollution and damage to our environment. My children & their schools will be negatively affected by the building of the tunnel. Our sports ovals will be negativity affected. I am also concerned about the added traffic congestion caused by the trucks. The need for this tunnel is no longer necessary as traffic congestion has eased in 2020-2021. This tunnel will do more harm than good, please reconsider

This proposed project represents the biggest failure in imagination in public planning seen in our lifetimes. The budget has been estimated at $14 billion, according to government documents. Experience suggests that public infrastructure projects routinely cost double the original budget. If the planning experts say that we need more than $20 billion to solve Mosman's traffic problems, then we need new experts.

This money would be better spent on public transport. Link Dee Why to Chatswood (and even North Sydney) via light rail. Boost Chatswood as a business district. Create more car parks linked to bus stops. Anything to discourage more cars on the road.

If you build this tunnel, then principles of supply-induced demand mean that it will get congested in time. We should be seeking ways to discourage rather than encourage the use of the personal car.

I think the beaches link will help relive traffic congestion on military road and the Roseville bridge. As it seems to be one solution to solve the traffic congestion in the lower north shore plus lower northern beaches.

The Warringah freeway severs communities and with the added lanes and induced demand enabling 6x lanes more traffic to enter the congested Cammeray area it can only get worse. The Falcon Street user bridge is being replaced in the same spot, when it should be extended to bridge over Falcon Street. This will avoid pedestrians/cyclists crossing 10 lanes of traffic over 3 traffic light phases. The project does not improve the situation rather makes it worse. Active transport should be pursued, but instead of connecting the core route from Naremburn/Cammeray to North Sydney and Sydney, the project removes the only current cycle shoulder from Cammeray to North Sydney. It should be improved and made safer, into a velo-highway, and connected in both directions. A couple of hundred metres of a cycle way detouring around the golf course, only to meet more traffic lights is not desirable or logical. Without creating incentives, such as safe, convenient and connected routes, you can't achieve the much needed shift of people out of cars and into healthier active transport. A North/South connection is desperately needed. As part of the losses of infrastructure from the upgrades new cycling links should be pursued, such as in the large corridor on the west side of the freeway extending from where the route terminates at Naremburn all the way to the SHB as part of the project. Or along Miller Street.

As a resident of Cammeray with the confirmation that there will be unfiltered stacks within 100m of my residence and public schools that will spew toxic fumes I am deeply concerned. The project states that there are no portal emissions, i.e. no fumes from the 7km x3 lanes, x2 directions will be emitted at the portal, yet the deep purple shading shows that with the project pollution will get worse, specifically at this location. On top of the the smoke stacks will emit that concentrated pollution at that exact location, but double, with both tunnels emitting the pollution there, which is unacceptable for a modern country like Australia. The short term impacts on middle harbour where toxic sludge will be stirred up are unacceptable, but the constant exhaust running into the environment unfiltered is most concerning. For $14 billion the project should be discouraging Sydney siders from more vehicular trips, but instead it encourage it, along with the pollution.

Despite assurances that the construction trucks will only use Warringah Freeway, there's an indication of a huge influx of both heavy and light construction vehicles using Ernest Street and travelling west down a hill where cars rarely slow to the speed limit 50kmh and 40km in school zones, and is a constantly plagued with school traffic, lack of turning lanes, an unsafe crossing and no speed reduction measures. Even now trucks and busses turn in to the narrow Lytton Street which should be prohibited, as they cross the double lines and travel on both sides of the roadway which is illegal. All WHT/BL vehicles should be banned from small suburban streets. See photos attached. It is so dangerous.

For 14 billion dollars this project could have really achieved something visionary, but instead we are adding lanes, which has only made traffic worse. (See M5 etc) A simple explanation on why adding lanes makes traffic worse is here: https://www.vox.com/videos/22280067/highways-traffic-worse-congestion-expansion

The stacks should be filtered. What will they do when the pollution exceeds the acceptable limits? Close the freeways? They will never do that. It's unacceptable that it can be built as it is. Public transport, active transport, a connected network of separated paths should be being built. The loss of green space in North Sydney, the government area with the least green space at all, is unacceptable. For the exorbitant cost of the project, to human health, marine and natural environments - the project should be repaying in double for its sins. But instead of sinking the operational centres into the landscape, creating land bridges to reconnect communities, adding to the net green space, improving the North Sydney CBD, there is only backwards outdated thinking with loss of trees and green space and more lanes of traffic. It's like they're making all the same mistakes again and building another Warringah freeway, through the scar that already is the Warringah freeway. Clever, forwards thinking solutions are needed, to move all people, not just encourage more vehicles onto the roads, to pay tolls to private operators. Roads shouldn't be just for sitting in cars, they should be for connecting people.

Our Precinct is not opposed to this project, but does have a range of comments and suggestions to make on the EIS.
We see the project, as proposed, as part of a bigger holistic response to an obvious and significant current traffic problem... but only a part of the answer and maybe not even the major part of a proper, complete answer.

Please review the attached document

I object to many aspects of the Harbour Tunnel. I object to the destruction of flora and fauna at various construction sites, impacts to residents around sites, pollution from unfiltered stacks particularly in the Balgowlah basin where surrounding typography will mean the health of residents for many kilometres will be adversely affected, a lack of a dedicated bus lane in the tunnel and ultimately the spread of blocks of high rise ugly flats across the Northern Beaches, like we see has happened to the rest of Sydney in the last 20 yrs. The ugly high rise proliferation in many areas of Sydney, particularly in the last 10yrs, has created a constant eyesore and is changing the character of our city, and not in a good way. We need to halt the Ponzi scheme of GDP growth via blocks of flats. The Ponzi scheme of governments and stamp duty receipts. The Ponzi scheme corruption of developers and all levels governments in bed together. The Ponzi scheme of Transurban and the huge tolls we are forced to pay.

IF THE TUNNEL MUST BE BUILT I HAVE TWO CONCERNS THAT I HIGHLIGHT HERE AS BEING UNACCEPTABLE ISSUES UNADDRESSED BY THE EIS & I HAVE PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS ON HOW TO FIX:
1. Parking facilities around Wakehurst Parkway & Kirkwood St Seaforth. (See attachment showing parking areas at Oxford Falls)
2. Heavy truck routes to and from Balgowlah site. (See attached Seaforth Public School dangerous intersection)

1. PARKING. The Wakehurst tunnel designated work site areas do not have sufficient parking facilities for the hundreds of workers. The residents of Kirkwood St/Judith St Seaforth in particular are at the front line of suffering the impacts of construction activities. Many of the residents back directly onto site. We do not want all our street parking taken as well. I suggest 2hr parking be introduced, residents exempt. Alternatives for workers' parking obviously need to be found. Rather than workers vehicles flooding the streets, my suggestion is to create parking at Oxford Falls and bus workers to & from the Seaforth site. There are two largish areas on the western side of Wakehurst Parkway at the junction of Dreadnought Rd & Wakehurst Parkway Oxford Falls. These two sites were previously storage areas for the construction of the Warringah Rd/Northern Beaches Tunnel works. See attachment for image.
There will be a temptation for the tunnel contractor to want to use Seaforth Oval carparking however this should not be permitted. We do not want the tunnel operations to impact the football club or the residents who use Seaforth Oval every day for walking dogs, exercise, football training, competition on Tuesday nights with Oztag from 6pm in summer and most importantly on winter Saturdays when Seaforth Oval carpark capacity are insufficient and large numbers of cars overflow into Kirkwood Street, Judith St and Burnt Street. It would be a disaster for the operations of the club if the hundreds of workers vehicles were allowed to enter the club's two carparks or the residential streets. If 2hr parking is set up in those streets by Council to ensure long stay workers did not take up parking it should not impact on soccer families weekends because the soccer activities are normally finished within 2hrs. I am currently on the committee of Seaforth Football Club however, president Alan Glixman will be making a submission on behalf of club & members interests.

2. BALGOWLAH - HEAVY TRUCK ROUTES - SEAFORTH PUBLIC SCHOOL INTERSECTION
The EIS Chapter 6 Page 55 states there will be 495 heavy truck movements per day. That equates to a truck movement every 87 seconds. Currently the EIS states that spoil carrying trucks coming out of Wakehurst Pkwy tunnel site will not be permitted to travel south. There is no such information about which direction heavy trucks will enter or exit the Balgowlah site. We have been told this will depend on where the contractor has a disposal site. The worst route for residents and their amenity and safety will be if the trucks use Frenchs Forest Rd and Wakehurst Pkwy. Taking trucks through Seaforth shops, down Frenchs Forest Rd and Wakehurst Pkwy will mean the trucks will be travelling past Seaforth Public School at the very dangerous corner at the intersection on Frenchs Forest Rd and Barangaroo St. The entry to this intersection, with its sharp corner & multiple crisscrossing entry points, has the trucks on a considerable descent from the north or south. The intersection is hardly safe in its current format for numerous reasons, for example there are no barriers protecting a runaway north bound truck. In fact there is no possibility to install barriers to stop a truck running through it and into the school pedestrian crossing. Running massive trucks through it, potentially every 87 seconds would be shear madness. An accident with a truck losing its brakes or rolling over would of course be horrendous but with school children potentially involved on the footpath or the crossing would make it a catastrophe. Politicians would be blamed and held accountable by residents. My suggestion is to forbid any tunnel large vehicles using this road. If the trucks are travelling to or from the north of Sydney then they should be using the multi lane roads of Pittwater Rd and Warringah Rds via Brookvale.

Subject: Traffic Management and the Beaches Link

Hi
I registered for and joined the Beaches Link EIS sessions for Seaforth and Balgwlah last week purely as an observer, as I have to date submitted no comments or questions.

However I’m glad I did, as an obvious observation came to me as a specific part of the (excellent) presentation was provided.

My concern is about the access and egress to and from the Beaches Link at Burnt Creek, where the intended access road near Balgowlah Oval appears intended to be governed by 2 x sets of lights, one at Sydney Road and the other onto the Beaches Link itself from the new approach road.

Surely there is the opportunity to make totally unimpeded access and egress possible with free-flowing slip-roads using a small underpass or overpass ramp instead of still more stop-start lights? The whole purpose of this development is to help eliminate all the stop-start queues we currently experience along Military Road to the City or N Sydney from Manly or Seaforth.

There are already FIVE sets of traffic lights in less than a kilometre between my house just off Frenchs Forest Road and the current access point to the Spit Hill at Sydney Road eastbound. To get to the new tunnel, it appears I will have to negotiate SEVEN before reaching the entrance, as two more will be added within the next 500 metres. As both my turns from Seaforth onto the tunnel entrance will be left turns, surely these could be unimpeded filter lanes?

Not only is there the obvious delay (and frustration) with multiple stop-starts, but also air-pollution emission rates are logically increased by stopping and starting too. A simple single-lane curved overpass across the eastbound Sydney Road traffic would enable Manly drivers unimpeded to the access road too. Coming out of the tunnel on a return trip from the city, a single-lane curved overpass to the Balgowlah ramp across the Sydney-bound traffic on Burnt Creek would also eliminate the need for any lights there.

The trip from my home to my former office in Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove (just under 15 km) always entailed MORE THAN 25 traffic light stops whether I went via Military Road or chose the Warringah Road route further north unless I got a good run, even using cut-throughs and ‘rat runs’. (I've seen no obvious evidence in practice of the Sydney Co-ordinated Adaptive Traffic (SCAT) system we were told about in the Q & A presentation). Stuck in the traffic with little else to do, I often counted the number of red-light stops I had needed to make as part of my trip and considered a daily journey with anything under 15 to be exceptional!

I wonder does Transport NSW get some sort of kick-back from the traffic-light manufacturers for each new set installed?
Kind Regards
Stuart

Stuart Sykes
8 Callicoma Road, Seaforth 2092
Mob: 0468 611 665.

My name is Greg Cole. My son is a student at Balgowlah Boys. My question is regarding Community Receiver sites. Why has Balgowlah Boys School not been give Community Receiver sensitivity status when it’s the closest school to the Beaches Link exhaust stack and construction site?

CH12 of the EIS deals with air quality. Section 12:12 deals with Community Receivers. Described as follows in the EIS.
• ‘Community receivers. These were taken to be representative of particularly sensitive locations such as schools, childcare centres and hospitals within a zone up to 1.5 kilometres either side of the Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link program of works corridor, and generally near significantly affected roadways. In total, 42 community receivers were included in the assessment (refer to Figure 12-3).
I quote from section 12:12 of Chapter-12 of the EIS: "While some sensitive locations might not have been selected as representative community receivers, they have still been assessed as residential, workplace and recreational receivers in the model. For example, while the Northern Beaches Secondary College – Balgowlah Boys Campus has not been included as a community receiver, the potential air quality impacts at that location have been predicted and are considered in the discussion of results for residential, workplace and recreational receivers below in Section 12.5 and Section 12.6.”

Your report identifies the following locations as Community Receivers in the Balgowlah area closest to the construction site.

Appendix-H, Air Quality: Part-1 pages 103-104.
1. CR28: Peek a Boo Cottage
2. CR29: St Cecilia’s Catholic Primary School
3. CR30: Seaforth Public School
4. CR31: Punchinello Kindergarten

In the same order these locations are the following straight-line distances from the location of the exhaust stack and acoustic shed area of the Balgowlah Construction site

1. CR28: Peek a Boo Cottage: South West - 870 meters
2. CR29: St Cecilia’s Catholic Primary School: South East – 420 meters
3. CR30: Seaforth Public School: West to South West – 358 meters
4. CR31: Punchinello Kindergarten: North East – 420 meters

Balgowlah Boys Campus is directly due south of the construction site and is a mere 322 meters away. It is by far the closest location. It has around 1000 Y7 to Y12 students. It is the only location due south of the construction site, yet it’s not deemed to particularly sensitive enough to be a “Community Receiver”.

Can you please explain this oversight?

ACTIVE TRANSPORT
I object to the Beaches Link project as the plan doesn't include any dedicated Active Transport facilities along it's main Balgowlah to North Sydney corridor. This project is supposed to address the transport needs of the Northern Beaches, but it only provides a solution for cars. The fact that Active Transport is apparently 'out of scope' for a transport project costing taxpayers $14 billion is a huge oversight and a massive missed opportunity to kick start commuter cycling in the area. Even the few cycleways proposed by this project along Wakehurst Parkway and Burn Creek Deviation are 'shared paths' with pedestrians that the advent of e-bikes have proven not fit for purpose as a concept. If the tunnel will reduce surface traffic, this project should include a dedicated segregated cycleway connecting the Northern Beaches to the CBD so local residents have a safe alternative to driving. Currently local councils in the beaches, Mosman and North Sydney or RMS have proven incapable of working together to provide adequate cycling infrastructure, so this project and its state significance is the only way it will come about.

IMPACTS ON LOCAL MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS
Five trails will be negatively impacted by the Wakehurst Parkway extension, (The Trig Track in Manly Dam, Jumping Jacks near Aquatic Centre, plus Olive Oil, Popeye and Cuffs on the west side of the parkway.) All are integral long standing parts of the local trail network and heavily used by local riders and runners. Any plan must maintain the connection and riding experience these trails provide both throughout project construction and on completion. If the trails on the west side of the Parkway could be realigned and formalised plus budget provided to re-route the Trig track away from the new road and on to council land where it should be located I'm sure a solution can be found, but currently there's very little detail in the EIS as to how local mountain bike tracks will positively effected by this project and plenty to suggest how it will negatively impact them.

This is a good project and in many respects overdue. However, I have the following concerns with the design of the project:

1. Public transport is an afterthought but should be central. The stats provided in the EIS demonstrate the failure of public transport. There should be more bus use than car use - there opposite is true today. The proposal will only make this result worse. The EIS refers to B Line expansion but is vague, no details are provided. This is grossly inadequate when the real issue is lack of comprehensive public transport and too many cars on the roads.
2. Traffic congestion at local destinations. The EIS is silent on the downstream impacts to local destinations such as Manly Beach and Clontarf Reserve and many others. With the ability to bypass Military Road these destinations will be easier to access for many Sydney-siders. This is great, however congestion already occurs at these locations and this situation will be made much worse. It is irresponsible to build the tunnel and not consider flow on impacts such as local destination congestion. I live at Sandy Bay in Clontarf and it is a traffic nightmare on summer weekends and public holidays. Refer point 1 above - the answer is to move people to public transport and get rid of the cars.
3. Electric Vehicles. The EIS does not seem to give consideration to this unstoppable trend. Air quality in the tunnel will be much less an issue with EVs. The Government should include incentives and commitments related to EVs concurrent with the proposed tunnel.
4. Construction traffic. It is not clear where the workers will park or how they will get to/from the construction sites. It is not clear how the roads will cope with 50 trucks per hour at peak. We can't just hope for the best here - more planning is needed.
5. Pedestrian and cycle ways. These get a mention in the EIS but I did not see any detail. Without proper planning these will remain an afterthought. They are too important to get wrong. Our health relies on an ability to not be struck in cars. I cycle on Wakehurst Parkway often and would like to see how it will change to better support cyclists.
6. Biodiversity. This is my final point but is very important to me and many others. The EIS mentions a bat colony which is good. It does not mention the many species located in the nearby Manly Dam area such as the 60 million year old and unique "climbing fish". The EIS concedes that water levels and water courses may change. I would like to see a firm commitment to not damage habitat for threatened plants and animals as a result of this proposal - this requires more detail and an independent biodiversity protection commissioner to be appointed with appropriate authority. Local Groups such as "Save the Manly Dam" should be consulted further on this topic.

Thank you for the opportunity to raise my concerns. I would be happy to discuss them in more detail.

Regards

Paul Jennings

The positive impact on the local community (a quicker journey to the city) is not matched by the detriment of many years of construction, disruption to traffic flow, and massive increase in traffic into the beaches post construction. What proportion of the northern beaches population will use this regularly?? personally i have been to the city 5 times in one year and supposedly i work there! i am not intending to go into the city more than 2 times a week in the future.

The government should be should be encouraging people to take their cars off the roads - car share/park n ride/more public transport and investing in work from home initiatives to reduce the need to commute to the city - wake up, the future of work is not the daily commute. my company is not intending to require us to work in the city more than 2 days a week. Put on more ferries and bus links, provide more grants for office hubs and hot desking hubs. The spend on this tunnel is insane - and we cannot support all this traffic as it enter the beaches - no budget for council to work out local traffic solutions!?? How is this beneficial to local residents?? Kenneth Rd Manly Vale is a disaster, Balgowlah Rd is a disaster. These need sorting out before we can even consider increasing traffic flows.

Please do not destroy our beautiful beaches!